The Botez Chess Camp Tournament

Ok, I just finished watching the Botez tournament & was very entertained by all of it. The competition was good & I got introduced to a few new players. Most all of these players are streamers or are in the process of starting to stream. Jennifer Yu, who's won the U.S. womens title twice finished in 1st with Alex Botez doing superb & finishing 2nd.  Dina Belenkaya was tied for 1st late in the tournament but had bad luck at the end. She was having great results until the very end. She tied for 3rd with Anna Cramling who was kicking butt too. I wouldn't have been surprised if Dina had finished 1st.  Linda Diaz played, who's also an amazing singer/songwriter/musician & was playing her first tournament in 7 years & she played very well. I'm a new fan of hers now, I listened to a few of her songs & I love her sound. Poor Andrea played well but the results weren't working out in her favor. At least she scored late. She'll kick azz in her next event.  Nemo Zhou finished at 50% which tells u how strong the field was. Jules Shulman has returned to chess this year & from what Benjamin Bok & Anna Maya were saying she's made giant leaps in playing ability recently, gaining huge truck loads of rating points fast. Hopefully she'll keep it up. 

I'm sure this was an expensive tournament to organize but I really hope it continues. Maybe it has resulted in more viewers for their streaming. Also, I'm certain Linda has got a lot of new fans. I read that she won 1st in an NPR competition out of thousands of musicians. Listen to her songs if y'all get the chance. 

The tournament director was Alex & Andreas dad, Papa Botez everybody calls him. Well, Alex & Andrea call him dad. Anyway, I just wanted to post this in case there were players on here that didn't know it was happening. I believe chess.com was a key part of it as well. I hope it continues.

cool

I feel bad for Dina, I was pulling for her but these were just a few games. She looked good most of the event. But she'll make up for the late stumble. It happens to everybody.

Also, for those who want to seriously improve their game here's her chess training school : https://www.skool.com/russianchessschool/about

Andrea looking so overconfident in every game just to go 0.5/9 is so satisfying to watch

Sunglasses, bobbing your head up and down so much even though you are losing is lok crazy considering how poorly she played

I can feel the disappointment. Andrea called herself so many times "expert", "master" or "2100 player" etc. in her videos. At the end she might have started to believe her own fictions.

her fide is 1800

i dont think she can call herself expert yet

It was 7 rounds, not 9.

I think streaming hurts these players tournament ability. They focus on too much other stuff but in the broader picture I guess that could work out better than just chess. & yes, it definitely was a publicity stunt but that's what they're mainly aiming for these days. I'm sure it was very expensive & the cost was likely far more than the early returns. But maybe it'll pay off in the long run, it's too early to know.

theyre just really obsessed with fame

To be fair, this was a bit more interesting than their usual trashy reality show content. Mainly because Hammer and Ana Maya did all the talking, and because they put their FIDE rating on the line.

I liked it but as a financial venture I'm sure it lost a lot of money. The name of the event is a bit confusing. Having the word camp in it makes it sound like a school or some lessons related event. Anyway, I hope they continue it & I hope they have luck in attracting sponsorship.